'We will come to Athens and burn them': political protest returns to Greece

"It's war," says Dimitris Vergos, a corn grower speaking from the northern town of Naoussa. "If they [politicians] go on pushing us to the edge, if they want to dehumanise us further, we will come to Athens and burn them all."

With the rhetoric at such levels, prime minister Alexis Tsipras's leftist-led administration has suddenly found itself on the defensive. Faced with a series of demonstrations -- fishermen and stockbreeders will join blockades on Thursday when public and private sector workers also take to the streets -- analysts say any honeymoon period Tsipras may once have enjoyed is over.

...

Six years into Athens' economic crisis, even more Greeks claim they have been pushed to the point where they can no longer survive the rigours of austerity. With an unprecedented 1.2 million people unemployed -- more than 25% of the population -- many have been pauperised by the biting effects of keeping bankruptcy at bay.

...

For farmers, the reforms will not only raise social security contributions from 6.5% to 27%, but double income tax payments from 13% to 26%, eradicating more than three quarters of their annual earnings.

...

Amid fears that lenders, led by the hardline International Monetary Fund (IMF), will ask for further retrenchment -- following discovery of a €1.8bn fiscal gap in the budget this year -- an iteration of the Grexit crisis cannot be ruled out. Negotiations between Athens and its creditors begin in the coming days.